July brought most orders ever, Boeing says

After all the sales activity at the Farnborough International Airshow last month, Boeing ended July with a commanding lead over European rival Airbus in both jet orders and deliveries.

Boeing booked 324 orders in July, the largest sales figure it has ever booked in a single calendar month, giving the jet maker a total of 823 net orders so far this year.

Airbus has 705 net orders through July.

But the disparity is greater than those top-line numbers suggest, because Boeing has an extensive lead in sales of the bigger and much more expensive widebody jets.

Boeing has booked firm orders for 273 widebody jets.

That included two blockbuster orders from Gulf carriers Emirates and Qatar for a total of 200 of the new 777-9X jets – deals that had been announced last fall but were made firm only in July.

In contrast, because in the past two months Emirates canceled 70 Airbus A350 widebodies and Skymark canceled six A380 superjumbos, Airbus’s net tally of widebody jet orders so far this year is negative – a deficit of 27 orders.

At Farnborough, an annual industry event held in England, Airbus launched a new widebody jet, the A330neo, and announced commitments from airlines to buy 121 of them.

None of those deals were finalized by the end of July. The A330neo sales should be booked later in the year and help Airbus win back at least some ground in the widebody-sales race.

In another boost for Boeing, data released Thursday by the company shows that United Airlines traded up a previous order for seven 787-8 Dreamliners for seven of the larger, more expensive 787-10s.

Based on real market pricing data from aircraft-valuation firm Avitas, that switch is worth nearly $200 million to Boeing.

In the narrowbody jet sector, where both plane makers plan upgrades to derivative models with more fuel-efficient engines, Airbus customers have canceled orders for 113 of the current narrowbody A320 jets so far this year.

Boeing has had just 54 cancellations of its corresponding 737 jet family.

In airplane deliveries, Boeing also has established a healthy lead over Airbus.

Boeing delivered 58 airplanes in July for a total of 400 airplanes delivered so far this year.

Airbus has delivered 352 jets through July.

Having delivered a record 648 jets last year, Boeing projects another record in 2014 of between 715 and 725 airplanes, including approximately 110 Dreamliners.

Airbus expects to deliver in 2014 about the same number of jets as last year: 626 airplanes.